Driver's Education
by Kiwi McHearts
Summary: Mr. Ishiyama agrees to teach Yumi a few things about driving. Who knew a little advice would spark such a strong relationship? Family One-shot.


One-shoty-ness

**One-shoty-ness. (:**

_--_

"Just around the parking lot?" Yumi begged her father, "Please, daddy? I'll never bug you again."

"Ask your mother to take you." Mr. Ishiyama turned the page of his newspaper lazily, "You can't drive anyway. How old are you again? Like… twelve?"

She sighed, "I'm fifteen, dad, and Mom is taking Hiroki to Jonny's house today, and then the bank, and then…somewhere else."

"Darling," Called her mother, "I'm very busy today. Why can't you take her? Just go up to Kadic Academy, right down the road." Mrs. Ishiyama grabbed her purse and yelled for Hiroki to come downstairs, "There's this empty parking lot near the back you can take her too."

"She's not driving _my_ new car." Retorted the husband without looking up from his reading.

Yumi scoffed, "I won't wreck it dad. _You_ drive it to and from the parking lot, and I just get the feeling of it." She batted her eyes, "Please, papa?"

"For thirty minutes." Coaxed Mrs. Ishiyama, "She's fifteen; she should _at least_ get the feeling of it before driver's ed. class she takes next semester."

Mr. Ishiyama sighed in frustration, "Fine, fine, but not longer than thirty minutes. I have things to do." He mumbled as his wife kissed his cheek and Hiroki hugged his leg, "I have better things to do on a Sunday afternoon than teach my daughter how to drive."

Yumi, on the other hand, jumped with excitement and success. She ran back upstairs to her room, and slipping on her boots.

"Why do you suddenly have an interest in driving?" Her father asked her the moment she appeared on the staircase, "Before, you took a school driving thing, and you told your mom and I that it was stressful."

"That was a year ago." Yumi responded carefully. Anything that even _sounds_ like a retort or sarcasm will make her dad go crazy, "And besides, You know my friend, Ulrich?" Oh, Ulrich, yes, Mr. Ishiyama knew him well, "You see, his parents came into town last weekend, and they let _him_ drive around- the parking lot, I mean, and he's only fourteen!"

Mr. Ishiyama waved for her to come outside, "This isn't a fad, Yumi. Learning how to drive is a necessity to life now-a-days."

"Oh, I know, father." Yumi smiled a big grin, "I'm not doing this to 'look cool', I want to do this so I'll have a bit of experience before classes begin."

"This is an automatic." Yumi knew that, but she wasn't sure what it meant. The moment they bought it, she re-read what the car was like, a lot of stuff sounded pretty cool, but she had no idea what it meant, "And a stick." That, Yumi knew. He pulled it into reverse, "Remember that you _have_ to have the break on to switch gears. It won't let you, otherwise."

Yumi nodded- she was ecstatic. For the time being, she was completely oblivious to what her dad was telling her, even if it was precious information.

"Take a left here." She instructed her dad, and pointing to Kadic, "This is my school."

"The big one?"

"Yeah, but not the white one. The red-ish one."

He gaped, "That's quite a big school."

"Isn't it?" She motioned for him to take a right, "Not this parking lot. The next one."

"There's two?"

She nodded, "Yeah. One's for students." The farther parking lot was abandoned, and Takeo sighed in relief.

"Okay." He didn't feel like beating around the bush, and got straight to the rules, "I don't want you to even _touch_ the accelerator, alright? Not right away, anyway." He pushed the stick into park, "Get the feeling of having a steering wheel in your hands."

Yumi's eyes smiled almost as bright as her lips did as they switched places. She made herself comfortable in the driver's seat, before wrapping a grip on the stick, "No, no." Scolded her father, "Break." She rolled her eyes, and stepped on the break, "Okay, now put it in drive."

She pulled it back as far as she watched her father go, "No. That's neutral." She moved it back one, "There we go. Now, take your foot off the break." She obeyed, and the car tip-toed by itself.

A bigger smile stained Yumi's face, "Now, press the break, slowly."

Yumi tried her best to follow her dad's instructions, but the stop was a little jerk-ish, "No whiplash, please." She knew that her dad was trying to make a joke, and faked a chuckle, "Okay, now put it in park."

She looked puzzled, "I didn't even do anything yet!"

"You have to listen to me or I'm taking you back home." He ordered sternly, "Now, put it in park."

She groaned, and pushed the stick back up to park.

"Okay, now press the accelerator."

"While it's in park?" He nodded.

She moved her foot to the other pedal and pressed it, she watched the needle fly past fifty, "You see?" He told her calmly, "This car has a lot more power than what I want to teach you on. Don't press it as much as you think you need to." He paused, and let her do it again, "Much better, now take it off park, and back into drive."

Obeying her father, Yumi pulled back on the stick, "Try to go ten."

She found this a challenge. Either she was going a little to slow- or _way_ too fast, "Fine, we'll work on that later." Her father stated when she cursed to herself in Japanese, "We'll take on turning, first."

"Okay." Agreed Yumi, "Take a left?"

"Hard left." She turned the steering wheel, "That's right."

"I'm right?"

"No, you're going right."

"So I'm going the wrong way?"

"Right."

She sighed, and stopped gently, "There! A perfect stop!" Commented her father, and saw her glare, "What?"

"Was I going the wrong way?"

"I said left, you went right."

"Okay. Thank you for clearing that up." Seriously, Yumi sees the man that her mother despises a lot more than she hoped she would.

She finished her right turn, and her father told her to go a little faster, "Not that fast!" He screamed when she reached 12 mph, "Gomen." He apologized to her in Japanese, "I know I'm making you nervous." He looked out the window, "It's just—I can't believe I'm teaching you how to drive. I, as your father, _really_ don't want you to know how to drive. And you'll have to ask me to take you places," He looked back at her with a caring glare, "forever."

Oh, Yumi hated when he used his cute moments to make her feel bad or unthankful, "Daddy, I'm _learning_ how to drive. I'm not getting married, or graduating, or moving out- it's just driving."

"I know, but right now it's driving. Soon, it'll be graduating, and then moving out, and finding a job and then getting married and having kids, and then what? You don't need your dad after that."

She took a left turn, "Dad, I'm fifteen. I promise you. The only thing I care about right now is driving and grades. I'm not stressing about boys, or kids, or even college, for that matter."

"You should." He encouraged her, and showed her how to use the blinkers, "Up is right, down is left." After that tiny bit of experience, he continued, "You're growing up, Yumi, and I just want to stop it. Why can't you be fifteen forever?"

"Are you sure you really want me around as an unstable, awkward teenager living with you forever?"

He winced- just thinking about that made his skin crawl, "Okay, so why can't you turn twenty and never a year older?"

She whined, "Dad, please. I'm driving."

"Let's tackle parking." He pointed to a space directly in front of them, "Right there. Park there." The car, not being pushed on to go any faster, slowly glided in that direction, "You're getting too close to the curb."

"How do you know?" The car jerked to stop.

Mr. Ishiyama laughed, "That's how. Now, park it, and turn it off."

"Dad!" Yumi moaned, "I'm not done yet!"

"I know, I know."

She sighed, and did what her dad told her to, "Okay. I turned it off."

Her dad was already on the side walk, motioned for her to come with him. When she did, he pointed to the front tires, "You're _on_ the sidewalk. Should we tackle parking again?"

She shrugged, "Sure." They jumped back into the car, and she learned how to reverse it. The whole 'opposite direction' thing confused her at first, but she felt appreciated when her father praised her to doing it right, "Okay, try again."

She put it back in drive, and tried it again- but still ran against the curb, "Dang it!" She cried, "Man, I don't get this."

"Okay, so we'll take on parking and accelerating at a certain speed tomorrow." Yumi glanced at the clock- it had already been forty-five minutes.

They swapped places, and Yumi smiled, "Thanks for taking me, dad. I learned a lot." Secretly, she was jealous that Ulrich got to ride around for almost two hours, in both of his parents cars.

"It was fun, wasn't it?" She nodded.

On the way back, Mr. Ishiyama asked, "So, what's with this Ulrich boy? Is he rich?"

"No, not at all. He's cute, if anything, but not rich."

"Oh, so he's cute?"

Yumi stopped breathing for a half a minute, "Um, yeah. I guess."

"But he's younger than you."

"Yeah." The blinker ticked quietly in the silence.

"And he got to drive?"

"Yep."

"That's cool."

Yumi cringed. Did her dad just say _that's cool_? She wanted to slap him for doing that. Her father watched her reaction, "Okay, so _cool_ is out of my vocabulary."

She giggled, "Yes, please."

Once home, Mrs. Ishiyama greeted both her husband and daughter with a kiss on the forehead, "How did the lesson go?"

"Great."

"Just fine."

They paused, "Yumi, do you want a private tutor? I can understand that driving with a parent can be sort of stressful. I mean, that's what I did when I was your age- drove with my parents, and they yelled at me for everything." She glared at her husband, "Dad didn't yell at you too much did he?"

"No, he didn't yell at me at all." Yumi answered nicely, drinking a water bottle.

Her father looked down at her with a smile, "And can daddy be my driving tutor out of school?" Mr. Ishiyama's eyes glistened with the authority.

"Sure, if he would do it."

"How about every Tuesday and Sunday?" The two full days he had off, "Right after school." Yumi nodded and they sealed it with an embrace.

**XxX**

"Daddy! Come on! Come on! Let's go!" She pulled him out into the front yard, "Week four! It's week _four_! Can you believe that?"

"You seem excited."

"I am!"

Yumi was a master at turning, and blinkers, and getting out of parking spaces, but she still had trouble with parking without hitting the curb. Either she was on the sidewalk, or not in enough.

"Dad, I give up." She groaned after her 7th try that night, "I just can't park."

"You can't give up. We've been working for four weeks." He pressured her, "One more time, and then we'll go home."

"Okay." He talked her the entire way into it, and hushed when the car stopped. Mr. Ishiyama jotted out, and inspected the scene. He congratulated her with a thumbs up, and Yumi screeched in success, "I did it!"

"Oh, Yumi! I knew you could!" She stepped out too, to see the car perfectly placed in it's white box on the tar. Father hugged her daughter tight, and they swayed back and forth. For the moment, Yumi didn't care.

And honestly, neither did Takeo.

**XxX**

"Get up! Get up! You can't rest! It's almost time to go!"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Come on! We gotta go if we want to come back before dinner."

Yumi dragged herself out the door, "Dad, I think I've practiced enough around the parking lot. It's been- how long?- five months."

"I know." He gave her the keys, and an envelope, "Remember the test you took last Thursday?" She nodded, "They gave you a permit." She screamed in delight, "So, no more driving in squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles." He also handed her a map, "Drive me to the Grocery store."

Yumi stared at him in disbelief, "Really dad? On a real road? _Today_?"

"The grocery store isn't that far." Takeo coaxed her with a smile, "I need to get my medications." Anger management pills. He never said it, he said it- and everyone called it 'Daddy's happy pills', but whatever.

She took the map from him, and kissed his cheek, "I love you so much, Daddy."

"I love you too, babe. Now, let's go, before they charge me for waiting."

**XxX**

Hiroki was playing a video game, and Mrs. Ishiyama was cooking dinner when the front garage door opened, "Yumi and Dad are home!" Called the mom.

Hiroki only grunted in response.

"She did it." Takeo came back with a brown bag, his medications a part of what was in it, "Actually, she did so well, that I let her to me to the ice-cream shop for celebration."

Yumi hopped inside, a smile and almost dried ice-cream stained her lips, "Yumi, you got a little-" Mr. Ishiyama was about to wipe it off, but stopped himself, "you got ice-cream on your face."

Yumi licked her lips and rubbed the rest off with a napkin, "Thank you so much daddy. I have my real deal test on Friday, and if I pass- I'll get my license early."

"I'm sure you'll do great."

"I'll pass, yes, but you have to get exactly 600 points to get your license. No one ever at Kadic has made it, before." Yumi shrugged and hopped upstairs.

Mr. Ishiyama called after her, "There's a first for everything, right?!"

**XxX**

"Oh my god." Jeremie took it from her in a heartbeat, "You didn't."

"First Kadic student _ever_." Yumi smiled bright, as she took her papers back, "I have to get my parents to sign it, and then, six months after my 16th birthday, I get a license."

"You could drive us all around town!" Odd squealed.

"I don't think she'd want to lug us everywhere." Ulrich nudged his friend, "You _have_ to tell me who taught you. My parents freaked me out so bad, I nearly ran into four trees."

She coughed lightly, "My dad."

Aelita screamed, "Your dad?! I thought your parents spilt up."

"That was temporary." Yumi explained, "But anyway, I got to get home and show my parents. They think I'm walking back anyway. I just wanted to stop by and show you, so, bye!"

"Bye Yumi!"

"Congratulations!"

"Ciao!"

**XxX**

"You did it?!" Mr. Ishiyama gripped her in a bear hug, "Way to go, Yumi, I knew you could."

Mrs. Ishiyama was also excited, and almost burned herself in her pure amazement, and also hugged and kissed her daughter, "I knew you would do it, Yumi. You're a leader, not a follower. I knew you'd do it."

"Yeah, but I still need dad to be with me for another year or so." Yumi handed her mom the paper work, and wrapped her arm around her father's tall shoulders, "And really? That's pretty cool with me." She kissed her father's cheek, "I love you daddy."

"I love you too, doll."

She was about to go upstairs when her father called her again, "Did_ Ulrich_ get his license?"

Yumi laughed, "No!" They shared a small chuckle before getting ready for dinner.


End file.
